# Benjamin N. Cardozo *American jurist; associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1932–1938* Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (May 24, 1870 – July 9, 1938) was an American jurist. He sat on the New York Court of Appeals from 1914 to 1932. From 1932 until his death in 1938 he was an associate justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]].[^1] He is credited with wide influence on the growth of American common law during the 20th century, and is also known for his judicial philosophy and his writing style.[^1] A native of New York City, Cardozo studied at Columbia Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1891. Voters elected him to the New York Supreme Court in 1913. In 1914 he moved to the New York Court of Appeals, and in 1926 he was elected its chief judge. His majority opinions in that post include *Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.*[^1] President Herbert Hoover named Cardozo to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1932 as successor to [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]][^1] Cardozo remained on the Court until he died in 1938. There he was one of the liberal group of justices called the Three Musketeers. The majority opinions he wrote for the Court include *Nixon v. Condon* (1932) and *Steward Machine Co. v. Davis* (1937).[^1] ## Early life and family Cardozo was born in New York City in 1870 to Albert Jacob Cardozo and Rebecca Washington Cardozo (née Nathan). His maternal grandparents were Sara Seixas and Isaac Mendes Seixas Nathan. His paternal grandparents were Ellen Hart and Michael H. Cardozo. All four belonged to the Portuguese-Jewish Western Sephardic community and to Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan. Cardozo became a bar mitzvah at Shearith Israel in June 1883. The family's forebears had come to the British colonies from London before the American Revolution.[^2] The family descended from New Christian conversos of Jewish origin. During the Inquisition they left the Iberian Peninsula for Holland, where they resumed the practice of Judaism. Family tradition placed those ancestors in Portugal, a link that has not been firmly established. The surnames Cardozo, Seixas and Mendes, however, carry Portuguese rather than Castilian spellings.[^2] Cardozo and his sister Emily were fraternal twins. They had four other siblings, among them an older sister, Nell, and an older brother. Cardozo took his name from an uncle, Benjamin Nathan, a vice president of the New York Stock Exchange. Nathan was murdered in 1870, and the killing was never solved. The poet Emma Lazarus was among the family's cousins.[^2] ## Legal career ### Law practice After his 1891 admission to the bar, Cardozo worked as an appellate lawyer with his older brother. Through the end of 1913 he practiced in New York City with the firm Simpson, Warren and Cardozo.[^3] He then sought a seat on the New York Supreme Court. In November 1913 he was elected by a wide margin to a 14-year term, and he began serving on January 1, 1914.[^3] ### New York Court of Appeals In February 1914, weeks after taking his seat, Cardozo was designated to the New York Court of Appeals under the Amendment of 1899. The cited article reports that he was the first Jewish person to sit on that court.[^3] Samuel Seabury's resignation left a vacancy on the court. In January 1917 the [[governor]] appointed Cardozo to that regular seat. Running on both the Democratic and Republican tickets, Cardozo won a 14-year term in November 1917.[^3] Both parties nominated him again in 1926, when he was elected Chief Judge for a 14-year term. He assumed that office on January 1, 1927. He resigned it on March 7, 1932, to take his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.[^3] His years on the court produced a number of original rulings, especially in tort and contract law. Timing contributed: rapid industrialization was pressing courts to reconsider common-law doctrines in new settings.[^3] In 1921 Cardozo delivered the Storrs Lectures at Yale University, later published as *The Nature of the Judicial Process*. Soon after, he joined the group that founded the American Law Institute. The Institute went on to produce Restatements of the Law of Torts, Contracts and other private-law fields.[^3] ## Cases *Schloendorff v. Society of New York Hospital*, 105 N.E. 92 (1914), required a patient's informed consent before surgery. The same decision held that a non-profit hospital was not vicariously liable, a part of the ruling reversed in 1957.[^4] *MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co.*, 111 N.E. 1050 (1916), allowed consumers injured by a product to hold its manufacturer liable without privity of contract. The ruling removed privity as a precondition of a manufacturer's duty in product liability.[^4] *De Cicco v. Schweizer*, 117 N.E. 807 (1917), took up third-party beneficiary law in a dispute over a marriage contract. *Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon*, 118 N.E. 214 (1917), treated an implied promise to act as consideration in a contract.[^4] *Martin v. Herzog*, 126 N.E. 814 (1920), held that breach of a statutory duty establishes negligence, with causation still to be proved.[^4] *Jacob & Youngs v. Kent*, 230 N.Y. 239 (1921), held that substantial performance of a contract entitles the other party to damages, not a right to terminate.[^4] In *Hynes v. New York Central Railroad Company*, 131 N.E. 898 (1921), the court found that a railway owed a duty of care even though the victims were trespassers. *Glanzer v Shepard*, 233 N.Y. 236 (1922), arose from a dispute over the weighing of Caballero beans. It concerned duties imposed by law that grow out of a contract.[^4] ## Personal life In adulthood Cardozo no longer practiced Judaism and described himself as an agnostic. He remained proud of his Jewish heritage.[^5] Of Albert and Rebecca Cardozo's six children, only Emily married, and she and her husband had no children.[^5] Cardozo shared a home in New York with his older sister Nell until her death in 1929. Jeffrey Rosen reviewed Richard Polenberg's book on Cardozo in the [[New York Times]]. In that review, Rosen quotes Polenberg's account of what Cardozo said when asked why he had never married: "I never could give Nellie the second place in my life".[^5] Cardozo suffered a heart attack in late 1937 and a stroke in early 1938. He died at 68 on July 9, 1938, and was buried in Beth Olam Cemetery in Queens.[^5] Judge Learned Hand delivered a eulogy for Cardozo in 1939. Hand said Cardozo could "weigh the conflicting factors of his problem without always finding himself on one scale or the other". He also said that "his gentle nature had in it no acquisitiveness."[^5] ## Schools, organizations, buildings and ships named after Cardozo Places named for Cardozo include the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University and Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Queens. Cardozo College, a dormitory at Stony Brook University, and Cardozo Playground in the Arverne neighborhood of Queens also bear his name.[^6] California Shipbuilding Corporation built the Liberty ship SS *Benjamin N. Cardozo*, launched on April 5, 1943. The ship was later renamed USS *Serpens*.[^6] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *Benjamin N. Cardozo* (revision 1378992142, retrieved 2026-10-26, CC BY-SA 4.0) — lead section: dates, offices, 1932 Hoover appointment, and principal opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_N._Cardozo [^2]: Wikipedia, *Benjamin N. Cardozo* (revision 1378992142, retrieved 2026-10-26, CC BY-SA 4.0) — "Early life and family": parentage, ancestry, congregation, siblings, and the uncle for whom he was named. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_N._Cardozo [^3]: Wikipedia, *Benjamin N. Cardozo* (revision 1378992142, retrieved 2026-10-26, CC BY-SA 4.0) — "Legal career": law practice, 1913 and 1917 elections, 1926 chief-judge election, 1932 resignation, Storrs Lectures, and American Law Institute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_N._Cardozo [^4]: Wikipedia, *Benjamin N. Cardozo* (revision 1378992142, retrieved 2026-10-26, CC BY-SA 4.0) — "Cases": New York case names, reporter citations, years, and holdings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_N._Cardozo [^5]: Wikipedia, *Benjamin N. Cardozo* (revision 1378992142, retrieved 2026-10-26, CC BY-SA 4.0) — "Personal life": religion, family, death and burial, the Polenberg quotation, and the Learned Hand eulogy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_N._Cardozo [^6]: Wikipedia, *Benjamin N. Cardozo* (revision 1378992142, retrieved 2026-10-26, CC BY-SA 4.0) — "Schools, organizations, buildings and ships named after Cardozo". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_N._Cardozo